Dream On

Hello everybody! Sorry I have been slacking in the blogging department...during the week there's not really much to say! I have now finished my second week of classes. I am really enjoying them so much! I am learning all kinds of things that I don't think I would normally be able to learn. I can already tell that my Spanish is improving (though its nowhere near perfect...or even good!). I've also been finding the language barrier a little bit...well, funny this week. It's quite humorous the things that get mixed up in translation. For example, in my speaking and writing class, we each have to bring in a word once a week and share it with the class. This helps increase our vocabulary and helps us with speaking as well, since we have to define our word in Spanish (not nearly as easy as it sounds!). Anyways, yesterday my friend Alison brought in the word 'fustigar', which she thought meant 'to mix', like you would mix something you were cooking. Our profesora had a hilarious reaction to the word and explained to us that it meant 'to whip'....like, with a whip. The whole class laughed for literally ten minutes. Then today, we were discussing the weather with Nati, and Alejandra told her that its about 60 degrees in California (where Ale lives), and Nati freaked because that is so hot....because she's only used to Celsius! It's little things like this that make me chuckle a little bit and remind me of just how different it is over here!

Honestly, I feel like every single day I find something that's different, or I come up with another thing from America that I miss. I've been lucky enough to find some American things (mostly food, of course)--Chips Ahoy, Oreo's (crucial), Lay's potato chips, Diet Coke (or Coca-Cola Light, as they call it here), etc. etc. However, I also find tons of things every day that I miss...I would kill for a real hamburger! They have a Burger King here, but we've been warned to not eat their food...Spain has fewer regulations on their meat, so sometimes when they run out they substitute with...pigeon? Yeah, no thanks. I'll pass. I've also been craving a Spicy Chicken Sandwich from Chick-Fil-A but that's gonna have to wait until I'm back in America, too! Oh well, there are probably things here that I will miss when I return to America! Like the great amount of chocolate in this city! For now, I'm dealing with the culture shock, but I still find myself feeling a little homesick every day...but this is normal, I feel homesick for Alabama every day in Charleston!

So, here's the exciting news for this weekend...I'm going to ROME tomorrow!! AH! I'm so excited but it still hasn't hit me yet...and I have yet to start packing (of course, some things never change...). I can't believe that I will be in a totally new country tomorrow. Something tells me the language barrier is about to get even scarier! This is an excursion planned by my study abroad program, so flights and hotels are all taken care of--kind of a relief! We will arrive in Rome tomorrow evening around six thirty and return to Granada Monday at about three. I'll be without internet all weekend as it is very expensive at our hotel and I don't really want to worry about taking my computer with me on the plane! I promise to post an entry all about my adventures in Rome complete with lots of pictures of pizza and pasta and GELATO....oh and the Vatican and the Trevi Fountain and all that kind of stuff too!

I miss you all SO MUCH every day! Sorry this is a lame post with no pictures, I'll do better next time! We're headed out to the Irish pub for karaoke tonight, so I will be gracing Granada with my beautiful voice...yeah, right. I can't wait to sing my heart out!! Should be a fun time! Have a great weekend everybody!!

Besos :)